Santorum breaks Romney momentum

Ex-Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum surged past Mitt Romney on Tuesday night as the Republican presidential race returned to the Midwest, where Santorum eked out victory in last month’s Iowa presidential caucuses.

Santorum put himself back in the GOP nomination hunt with victories in Missouri and Minnesota.

He appears, as well to have curbed Mitt Romney’s momentum after Florida and Nevada, and to have raised new and serious questions about the frontrunner’s popularity and appeal within his own party.

Santorum is an outspoken social conservative — he opposes abortion, gay rights and contraception — and was running on briefly turf.

He easily defeated Romney in Missouri’s non-binding, “beauty contest” primary. The Show-Me state will choose its GOP convention delegates at upcoming caucuses, but Santorum enjoyed a two-to-one head over Romney with about 60 percent of votes counted.

Newt Gingrich was not on the Missouri ballot, and is staking his hopes on the March 6 “Super Tuesday” primaries.

Santorum built a big lead in Minnesota’s precinct caucuses, with libertarian Rep. Ron Paul of Texas in second place. Romney was running third, despite having former Minnesota Gov. (and presidential candidate) Tim Pawlenty as chief surrogate.

The count in Colorado’s caucuses was just underway.

The Midwest results seemed ready to deliver — once again — a basic message. Romney is an uneasy frontrunner, not yet seen as inevitable and still viewed with suspicion by many conservatives in the party. Minnesota has long been a hotbed of pro-life activism. In Missouri, longtime conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly declared her support for Santorum.

Romney went negative on Santorum, releasing documents showing Santorum as an earmarker fighting to get federal projects and dollars for Pennsylvania.

But the attack came too late to mount the kind of negative media blitz that Romney used to shred Gingrich in Iowa and Florida. Romney aides were downplaying the three Midwest contests.

The caucus strength of Santorum and Paul has implications for Washington’s precinct caucuses on March 3. Although a liberal state, Washington has a GOP that has been a hotbed of conservative activism ever since Barry Goldwater’s win in 1964.

Romney is due here on March 1 for a fundraiser at the Bellevue Club, and likely a public rally.